Rural Vermont’s mission is to lead the resurgence of community-scale agriculture through education, advocacy, and organizing in support of Vermonters living in deep connection to one another and to the land that nourishes us all.

Feed the Fire!

Baby, it’s cold outside! Around here, we’re grateful for full woodsheds and for crackling fires. But most of all, we’re grateful for you. Together, we’re working towards a future where agriculture delivers greater health and vitality to our land and people, mitigates climate change, and improves upon a broad range of justice issues. Please donate now and help us feed the fire today and start the new year strong! Give here.

Annual Meeting & Celebration!

In the midst of torrential downpours on an evening in late October, 60+ hearty Rural Vermont members and friends gathered at the Tunbridge Town Hall for Rural Vermont’s Annual Meeting & Celebration. They shared a meal, thanked our outgoing Board members for their years of service and elected six new members to the Board of Directors, honored Migrant Justice with the Jack Starr award, bore witness to the debut of Rural Vermont’s “Digging In” video, and engaged in lively dialogue about everything from budgets to regional chapters to policy. We gave away some sweet raffle prizes, raised a good chunk of money, and spent some quality time with our folks! Thanks to everyone who braved the weather to be there!

We made it!

We’ve wrapped up our summer fundraising drive and want to extend a huge thanks to each and every one of the 219 supporters who pitched in. Now let’s dig in!

Changes to the “chicken bill”!

In the 2017 legislative session, an amendment was passed to the original “chicken bill” that Rural Vermont successfully advocated for a decade ago. These recent changes are significantly expanding opportunities for farmers to produce, process and sell poultry from the farm without inspection.

Bill Pearce of Hillside Farm in W. Glover is among the poultry producers taking advantage of this new law!

The new law both preserves the existing 1,000 bird exemption and provides two additional levels of on-farm production, processing and sale of poultry without inspection: a 5,000-bird exemption and a 20,000-bird exemption. Each additional level of production carries additional requirements related to the processes and facilities used for production.